Going in first or seventh, wearing whites or coloureds, Adam Gilchrist was the symbolic heart of Australia's steamrolling agenda and the most exhilarating cricketer of the modern age. He was simultaneously a cheerful throwback to more innocent times, a flap-eared country boy who walked when given not out in a World Cup semi-final, and swatted his second ball for six while sitting on a Test pair. "Just hit the ball," is how he once described his philosophy on batting, and he seldom strayed from it. Employing a high-on-the-handle grip, he poked good balls into gaps and throttled most others, invariably with head straight, wrists soft and balance sublime. Only at the death did he jettison the textbook, whirling his bat like a hammer-thrower, caring only for the scoreboard and never his average. Still he managed to score at a tempo - 81 per 100 balls in Tests, 96 in one-dayers - that made Viv Richards and Gilbert Jessop look like stick-in-the-muds.

When he signed a record A$2m sponsorship deal with Puma in 2004, few people questioned his value for money. Indeed it was arguably Gilchrist's belated Test arrival that turned the Australian XI from powerful to overpowering. He bludgeoned 81 on debut, pouched five catches and a stumping, and barely paused for breath until stepping down in 2008. Only in the closing stages of an untouchable career did his appetite slow - he was troubled by Andrew Flintoff's around-the-wicket angle during 2005 and found the flaw difficult to overcome - and his match-turning 144 against Bangladesh in April 2006 was his first century in 16 Tests.

The 2006-07 Ashes series was literally hit and miss, with three single-figure scores, two fifties and his most brutal hundred. At home his one-day form was subdued, but the game's biggest competition - and it's most important match - brought out Gilchrist's highest standards. He stole the World Cup final from Sri Lanka with 149 off 104 balls, slamming 13 fours and eight sixes, and added to his 54 and 57 from his previous two global triumphs. Using a tip from his batting coach Bob Meuleman, he put a squash ball in his glove to allow him to hit straighter - the advice should have been patented instantly.

In Tests, three Gilchrist innings rank among the most amazing by Australians: his death-defying unbeaten 149 against Pakistan at Hobart when all seemed lost, his savage and emotional 204 not out against South Africa at Johannesburg, and his 57-delivery Ashes century at Perth when he missed equalling Richards' world mark by a ball. In one-dayers, his 172 is the third-highest score by an Australian and his 472 dismissals might take decades to top.

As Australia's 41st Test captain he found the extra burden tiring, and was happy for Ricky Ponting to step in once Steve Waugh retired. But as Ponting's fill-in he crossed the final frontier, leading Australia to their first series win in India for 35 years in 2004-05. As a wicketkeeper he lacked Rod Marsh's acrobatics and Ian Healy's finesse, and he probably peaked at 30 in 2002. But if he clutched few screamers he dropped even fewer sitters, although one easy offering in Adelaide convinced him it was time to go. During that match against India he briefly became the leading gloveman in Test cricket by overtaking Mark Boucher, then the following day announced his retirement from all cricket but the Indian Premier League.Cricinfo staff September 2008

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Timeline

October 25, 1996 Badly begun is half done

Makes his ODI debut at the age of 24. Scores 18 batting at No. 7, and grabs two catches in the loss to South Africa in Faridabad.

April 5, 1997 Move up, move right

Replaces the struggling captain Mark Taylor as a specialist batsman during the ODI tour of South Africa. Shows the first glimpse at international level of his batting potential, striking 77 from 88 balls in Durban.

January 23, 1998 Opening with an open mind

Is promoted by Steve Waugh to open the batting in the one-day team, and in just his second match in the new role strikes 100 from 104 deliveries to guide Australia to a comfortable win over South Africa at the SCG.

Cracks 154 from 129 deliveries in an ODI against Sri Lanka in Melbourne. It is, at the time, the highest score by an Australian in a one-day international.

November 5, 1999 Hello, big time

Makes his Test debut at the Gabba, the home ground of his predecessor Ian Healy. Wins over the crowd with 81 from 88 balls, as well as five catches and a stumping. His first dismissal is Mohammad Wasim, caught off Damien Fleming.

November 21-22, 1999 What Australia had been missing

In only his second Test he is part of one of the most remarkable come-from-behind Test victories. At Bellerive Oval, Australia fall to 5 for 126 chasing 369 to beat Pakistan, when Gilchrist and Justin Langer combine for a 238-run stand to win the match. Gilchrist's contribution is 149 not out from 163 balls.

Collects five dismissals in a Test innings for the first time, then follows with another five in the second innings. His 10 catches against New Zealand in Hamilton make him one of only three men - and the only Australian - to pouch at least 10 chances in a Test.

December 15, 2000 Test captain

Is handed the captaincy in just his 12th Test after Steve Waugh is ruled out through injury. Leads Australia to a five-wicket win against West Indies in Adelaide.

February 28, 2001 Match-winner in Mumbai

Turns another match on its head with Australia at 99 for 5 against India in Mumbai. Gilchrist's 122 from 112 balls - the second fifty off 29 deliveries - helps set up a 10-wicket win.

Stumps Darren Gough off Shane Warne at The Oval to register his 100th Test dismissal, in his 22nd match.

February 22-23, 2002 Wonderful at Wanderers

Posts his highest Test score as Australia maul South Africa by an innings and 360 runs in Johannesburg. Gilchrist's unbeaten 204 comes at almost a run a ball and features eight sixes, and Wisden says: "Gilchrist was playing with them like a cat keeping a half-dead mouse alive for entertainment". Belts another century in Cape Town and finishes the series with 473 runs at 157.66.

October 17, 2003 From 100 to 200 in 25 Tests

Becomes the third Australian wicketkeeper to reach 200 Test dismissals. Achieves the milestone by catching Tatenda Taibu off Brad Hogg at the SCG.

Hammers 172 from 126 balls against Zimbabwe in a one-dayer at Bellerive Oval. It remains his highest ODI score.

March 17, 2004 Crisis calls, Gilchrist answers

Helps Australia recover from what appears a losing position to beat Sri Lanka in Kandy. Bats at No. 3 in the second innings - Australia have made 120 in their first - and puts on a 200-run partnership with Damien Martyn. Makes 144 and Australia win by 27 runs.

October 2004 Finally, the final frontier

Captains Australia to their first series win in India for 35 years, guiding them through their first three Tests as they take an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Belts Pakistan into oblivion once again, hammering a century from 109 balls in Sydney. Gilchrist brings up the milestone with a straight six off Shahid Afridi and finishes with 113.

February 19, 2005 st Gilchrist b McGrath

Effects the only wicket that Glenn McGrath ever wants to disown, by stumping Craig McMillan while standing up to the stumps to McGrath in an ODI in Wellington. It is the first stumping off McGrath in any senior match, and it comes off a delivery timed at 136kph.

March 2005 Bradmanesque

Hammers 162 from 146 balls against New Zealand in Wellington. It is his third century in consecutive innings, making him the first Australian batsman since Don Bradman in 1947-48 to achieve the feat.

Australia lose the Ashes in England and Gilchrist has a poor tour, with only 19 victims from the five Tests. He later singles out the Old Trafford Test as the lowest point. He drops Michael Vaughan on 41, who goes on to make 166, and misses two simple stumping chances off Shane Warne.

October 7, 2005 World-beater

Makes a mockery of the ICC World XI with 103 from 79 balls at Melbourne's Docklands Stadium. Achieves the feat against an attack boasting Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Flintoff and Shoaib Akhtar. Is eventually dismissed by Virender Sehwag.

April 10-11, 2006 Crisis calls again

Saves Australia from potential embarrassment against Bangladesh in Fatullah. After Bangladesh make 427, Australia stumble to 93 for 6. Combines with the bowlers beautifully, and manages 144 to get his team back in the match. The bowlers and Ricky Ponting secure the win.

Passes Rod Marsh's mark of 355 Test victims when he catches Paul Collingwood off Stuart Clark in the opening Ashes Test at the Gabba.

December 16, 2006 Endgame for England

Destroys England with the second-fastest Test century in history, taking 57 balls and falling one delivery short of Viv Richards's record. Achieves the feat at his home ground at the WACA and thrills the crowd as he bashes his second fifty in 17 balls. Deals with Monty Panesar especially harshly, taking 24 from one memorable over. With the win in the Test, Australia win back the Ashes.

April 28, 2007 Sri Lanka squashed

In a breathtaking innings of clean hitting and bravado, strikes 149 from 104 deliveries in the World Cup final as Australia beat Sri Lanka in Bridgetown. Is named Man of the Match, and later reveals part of his success was due to using a squash ball inside his glove.

Becomes the first man to strike 100 sixes in Test cricket, when he slog-sweeps Muttiah Muralitharan out of Bellerive Oval. The ball disappears and after numerous pleas for its return it is tracked down to Melbourne and given back to Gilchrist.

December 27, 2007 Healy on his heels

Takes a regulation outside edge from Wasim Jaffer off Brett Lee to register his 396th Test victim. The catch at the MCG moves him past Ian Healy to become Australia's leading wicketkeeper in terms of dismissals.

January 4, 2008 Catching up with Boucher

Becomes the second wicketkeeper to reach 400 Test dismissals when he catches MS Dhoni off Brett Lee in Sydney.

Takes a regulation outside edge to remove Anil Kumble off Mitchell Johnson's bowling in Adelaide. The catch takes Gilchrist to 414 Test victims and he passes Mark Boucher to become the world-record holder for most wicketkeeping dismissals. He achieves the milestone in his 96th Test.

January 26, 2008 When people ask why, not when

Announces his retirement from all forms of cricket, effective from the end of the CB Series.

February 15, 2008 One for the home ground

Scores 118 against Sri Lanka, his 16th and last ODI hundred as he bids farewell to the WACA.

Gilchrist has yet to completely win over the Australian fans, after having replaced their favourite Ian Healy in the side. And in only his second Test, he walks in at 126 for 5, with 243 more required to win the match. The Pakistan attack - Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib - is charged up, but has little idea what is about to hit them. What follows is one of the great counterattacks. Gilchrist and Justin Langer combine for 238 in 59 overs, as Langer falls just before Australia reach the target. Gilchrist's unbeaten 149 take just 163 deliveries, and feature 13 fours and a six. Steve Waugh later says, "He looks like he is playing in his own backyard." It is the first of many times that Gilchrist would turn a game on its head.

204* v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2001-02

This is a special innings not only for the sadism Gilchrist treats South Africa with, but for the time it comes at. Gilchrist has been a victim of a vicious internet rumour, and he lets the emotional side of him come out when he cries after reaching one of many milestones in the innings. Still, he has toyed around with South Africa so brutally that Wisden describes the innings thus: "Gilchrist was playing with them like a cat keeping a half-dead mouse alive for entertainment."

The rockbottom for the helpless South African bowlers comes when he decides to go for an advertising hoarding offering a bar of gold, worth 1.3 million rand, for a direct hit. The billboard is 30 feet in the air, and well behind the deep mid-wicket boundary. But Gilchrist aims to hit Neil McKenzie goldwards, jumping up and down as the ball makes it way towards the hoarding. He misses by a couple of feet, but enough damage has been done by then as that shot takes him to 175. Gilchrist reaches 200 with his 19th four from his 212th delivery. It is the quickest double-century at the time.

It is Gilchrist's first Test in India, and it is not the best of times to walk in when the pitch has started turning and bouncing on the first day, Harbhajan Singh has run amok, and all bar Matthew Hayden have failed to stand their ground in the hot cauldron. At 99 for 5, Australia are about to squander the advantage they have gained by bowling India out for 176, but Gilchrist has other ideas.

In a couple of hours he changes the face of the game and the contest. Sweeping, cutting and lofting, he races to an 84-ball century, the fastest by a visiting batsman on Indian soil. He takes risks, survives clear chances and half chances, but never retreats in a counterattack that is typically breathtaking. He moves from 50 to 100 in 29 balls, as the Indian spinners have no clue as to where to bowl to a marauding Gilchrist who makes sure they gain a lead big enough that they don't have to bat much in the fourth innings when the pitch will be at its worst for the batsmen. The innings has more than a shade of his debut century against Pakistan in Hobart, this one bringing about a famous victory too - Australia's 16th in a row.

113 v Pakistan, Sydney, 2004-05

The scorecard shows Stuart MacGill as the Man of the Match and Ricky Ponting as the dominant batsman with 207, but it is Gilchrist's 109-ball century that really wrests the match away from Pakistan.

Australia look solid in reply to Pakistan's 304, but at 318 for 4 they need to eliminate the risk of batting last. Gilchrist does that with his 13th Test hundred - he passes Andy Flower's record for a wicketkeeper-batsman, which features scintillating striking towards the end. He brings up the milestone with a straight six off Shahid Afridi, and has raced within reach thanks to consecutive sixes pulled off Mohammad Asif. For Yousuf Youhana and Shoaib Akhtar, who had also been part of the Pakistan team Gilchrist destroyed in Hobart five years earlier, there is a touch of déjà vu.

103 v ICC World XI, Melbourne, 2005-06

Shoaib Akhtar, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Flintoff, and Muttiah Muralitharan make up for a delicious bowling attack, and Gilchrist feasts on them like he is playing in the neighbourhood. Such is the innings that it makes the World Series so one-sided the experiment is not repeated.

In the second ODI, Gilchrist looks like he can get a double-century - which is the case with most of his centuries, but in true Gilchrist style leaves with minimum fuss once his job is done. Not before having humbled the World XI though. His 103 take 79 balls only, eight of which are hit for fours and four for sixes. The Gilchrist innings is all the more special as the World XI batsmen fail to hit many boundaries on the slow outfield - a necessity for the Docklands Stadium's primary sport: Aussie Rules football.

After having let Bangladesh score 427 in the Fatullah Test, Australia find themselves somewhere between embarrassment and humiliation at 93 for 6. There is only Gilchrist who stands between Bangladesh and the unthinkable: enforcing follow-on on Australia, and possibly a win in a Test match. Turns out, Gilchrist is too big a hurdle.

Gilchrist adds 63 with Brett Lee, 73 with Jason Gillespie, and 39 with Stuart Clark to avoid the follow-on. The innings is not his normal got-you-before-you-blink stuff. This is a slow wicket, and he buckles down to overcome a scratchy start and build an conventional Test innings. This is his slowest Test century at the time, yet his 144 come at a strike rate of 67.92. This has to do with a sudden switch of gears as he starts to run out of partners; he hits Enamul Haque for 23 off nine balls. In the process, he passes Chris Cairns's record of 87 Test sixes, and more importantly puts Australia in a state where they can fight back from, and Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden oblige in the second innings by chasing down the 307-run target.

102* v England, Perth, 2006-07

England have put up their first fight on the Ashes tour, bowling Australia out for 244 on the first day, including a duck for Gilchrist. Just when England start to harbour thoughts of a comeback in the series, Gilchrist crushes them ruthlessly. Only Viv Richards has reached a century faster than the 57 balls it took Gilchrist on his home ground in the second innings. On a boiling Perth day he sizzled, taking to Monty Panesar (24 runs in an over that started with a dot) and Matthew Hoggard in a stunning burst, which included 12 fours and four sixes. He doesn't know he is close to the record, or he could have gone for it. No message comes from the dressing room, and Gilchrist is glad he didn't get there. "Viv deserves that mantle as the fastest hundred," he says later.

Batting with a squash ball inside your glove can be a painful experience, but for Gilchrist in the World Cup final the squash ball slides into his bottom hand, and makes it less prominent. What results is perhaps the best performance on this grand a stage. Years after the match, it will not be remembered for the farcical finish because of poor governance by the ICC, but for Gilchrist's pure brilliance.

After morning drizzle has made the fans nervously check their schedules for the reserve day, Gilchrist reminds them why they are there. He belts eight sixes in his 129-ball 149, and for a while it seems he can make 200 even in an innings reduced to 38 overs. He is so mesmerising that occasional boos come from the crowd when he gives the strike to Matthew Hayden. Kumar Sangakkara, a member of the opposition, says later, "It was just heartbreaking to watch, but glorious at the same time."